Orange Hat and Green Overcoat
by nogender
Summary: This is actually my first fanfiction contributing to the wonderful Homestuck fandom. Dirk runs away from home and stumbles upon the Harley property.


I really shouldn't be here. I shouldn't even be alive at this point. Here I am though, lost, hungry and without a home to go to. There's no point in going back anyways, no one is in need of my help there, not even the one person I thought I could trust with all my might. All the might in my fingerless, gloved hands can't make him trust me anymore. Then again, I wouldn't apologize to myself. I'm a horrible person with a horrible past and it's time to move on.

My name is Dirk Strider and I'm now walking away from home in the mother fucking rain.  
The rain hit my face pretty hard. I felt like there was a drive by over my head and they all chose to gang up on the one person out of the millions of people in the world. Good thing I got my good ol'' orange hoodie. This thing is always handy.

I'm not a fan of rain _at all_. I don't think anybody in this world is, unless your a farmer in the desert that could really go for a flood right about now. Too bad I'm not a god damn farmer. If anything I'm just a guy with dumb pointy shades walking in this god forsaken rain in a bright orange hoodie against the gray scenery. My blonde spiked up hair has been despiked from all this fucking rain. It didn't take that long to do my hair before I left my home, but Jesus fuck did this shower fuck it up in a matter of seconds.  
Did I mention there is so much _god damn rain._

Either way I have to keep walking. I have enough money in my backpack to keep me going for about a week and a few stolen snacks, that's it. After that money and scraped up food is all used up I might as well bend over to the reaper and let him take me.

I walk past a couple trees in this large plane of weeds and grasses. It's nice, but there's absolutely nothing out here. It's just miles upon miles of grass, mud puddles and lost hope. I'm going to die on this dirt path before I even find a human being out here to have contact with. I see some wild life at the least. Some squirrels and cows, very common around here, but no houses- wait.  
What the fuck is _that?_

In the far distance I can see smoke. A house maybe? Who knows. There's only one way to know. I start my journey heading toward the house. With the bit of energy I still have in my legs I climb the giant hill in my way. Once I reached the top I see it.

It's a ranch. A nice ranch actually. I can see acres of land being cut off by white, worn out fencing. I see barns not to far from the glorious wooden house- there's even a little private forest near by. These people must be loaded.

I set out to the nice house skipping over mud puddles and such. I end up at the porch and- wait. What am I doing? These people are complete strangers. They could be either the nicest people on the planet or the must blood thirsty murderers in history. Luckily I know enough hand-to-hand combat to protect myself and run away, but rarely do I run away from a fight. I don't have my trusty katana though, god I miss that thing. My older brother took it away from me before I left. _God_ how I miss him, too. Stop, I'm suppose to move on and accept that I have a new life. Starting with this house.

_Here goes everything._

I take in a deep breath and shake of the on me. A few droplets fly in several directions. My hand extends out to the wooden scratched door. I could hear my heart pound against my skull.  
Knock knock knock.

There a loud crash of things from behind the door. Screaming is heard combined with a few loud barks. (They own a dog, great.) There's scratching at the door. (Obviously the dog.)

"Down, Bec!" A voice is heard right on the other side of the door. It had an english accent. It's a guy. He doesn't sound much older than me.

There's some whining from the beast and an a sweet 'good boy' from the owner. The door knob turns, squeaky and rusty. The door creeks open and-

"Oh, hello there!" The boy's voice sounds perky and non-threatening. The guy wears blue overalls and a green plaid shirt underneath. His glasses were rectangular and framed onto his freckles perfectly and his buckteeth showed he wasn't afraid to use them.

_Don't just stare at him, say something you dumbass._

"Uh, hey there. You wouldn't mind letting a kind person crash here for a few days wouldn't you?" Good, be nice to them. Maybe they'll feed you.

"A few days, huh? Let me notify my grandmother." He closes the door and I'm left alone on the poor once more.

The rain seems to be louder than ever and my backpack weighs a whole ton more than before. Then I hear the loudest screech since pterodactyls. The door knob wobbles excitedly and the door is nearly ripped off it's hinges when a older women come right at me- She just fucking picked me up and _hugs_ me.

"Oh of course you can stay here for a while! Heck! Stay for a bloody year if you'd like!" The woman carried me inside her home and finally set me down."Gosh, it's been so long since someone has come by our property! I was worried that we were forever lost from contact of the human species!" Her smile grew wider and wider as she examined me in a circle.

"Uh, okay?" I raised an eyebrow at the old lady, this is not what I was expecting at all.

"My name is Jade. My grandson over there is Jake." A fluffy, white, four legged beast goes over to her side and plops it's bottom next to Jades bare feet."And this here is our dog, Bec." Bec barks as if greeting me.

"Nice to meet you, too, Bec." I gave him a pat on the head and looked over at Jake. He was washing some dishes, I'm assuming they've just got done with dinner. Right as you ponder that your stomach growls.  
Jade hears this and grins."Hungry, aren't cha'?"

"Yes."

"Well, I think I can find something for you in a jiffy!" She turns to Jake and Jake nods.

This run away from home just got a _little_ bit weirder.

..::_::..

_What the fuck is going on? _

First I was walking in the rain, thinking to myself on how much I hated the rain, and now I'm here. In this cozy home with nice (possibly crazy) people out in the middle of nowhere.

I took a seat on a very mushy couch. Jade gave me a baby-blue blanket to keep warm in. I wrapped myself in it and sighed at how relieved I am to find nice people out here, but I can't let my guard down _just_ yet.

Jake came to the couch with a plate of mashed potatos, green beans, and two thick slices of ham. God, I smelled them before they were even ready. The fact that I hadn't eaten in a couple of days made this meal worth waiting for.

I dug right in. I hadn't even realize Jake had left to the kitchen. Man, I haven't eaten a legit homecooked meal like this before. Heck, I haven't eaten a homecooked meal at all. All I ever ate was chinese take out and drink orange soda. It was an unhealthy diet to be honest, but I wasn't complaining much about it. Food was food, it all goes down the same hole and out the other.

_But this wasn't take out_.

This was more glorious than any top city pizza. This wasn't some kind of greasy slop they put a price on and sold it. No, this was the best meal I've had since I was born. The mashed potatos were very warm and thick. It was sort of chunky as well, but that was just fucking okay. The ham was roasted to fucking perfection. Look at me, I'm getting all passionate about this wonderful food.

All the was left on the plate were green beans. I've never really eaten vegetables raw, they were either grilled or soaked in grease. I took a few bite but it just didn't taste right at all to me. I set the plate, along with the fork, on the coffee table in front of me. Jade walks over to me- her eyes go straight to the green beans.

"Sweetie, how come you didn't eat all your green beans?" Jade questioned me.

"I'm not much of a vegetable fan. Green beans go in that category of not-a-fan-of-it." I responded.

"Well I won't force you to eat anything you don't want to eat. Unless you have to eat it, then I will and I'm not afraid to bring out my rifle and hold it up to your head." Jade gave me a smirk as I tried to process what the fuck I just heard.

"You own a rifle?"

"Yup, had her since I was thirteen."

Okay, so now I'm scared. This lady owns a fucking rifle and is letting me stay in her house. _Her_ house. I tried not to show fear, which isn't too hard. Born and raised with this godly poker face, it's almost futile to make any expression unless it completely catches me off guard or is wicked sweet.

"That's pretty impressive Ms..." I trailed off, clueless of her last name.

"Harley. Jade Harley." She smiles, I can see where Jake got the buck teeth from.

"Nice name, it has a sweet ring to it."

"Thank you and may I ask of your name?"

"Dirk Strider."

Jake emerges out from the kitchen just then. Sipping out of a glass (I assume it's water) he hears us and starts coughing frantically."I beg your pardon?" He says with a raspy voice.

"Dirk Strider is my name, is there something wrong with my name?" I looked over at him, his cheeks flamed up as he continues to slurp up the left over water in his cup. He walks away and silence takes the whole room.

"Uhm, well that was weird." I finally spoke.

"Oh Don't mind him, he kind of has had his noggin' in the gutter ever since I let him own a computer. Other than that he's a sweet boy with not many friends. Poor thing.." Her smile fades as she places a hand to her cheek.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I know I'm not much of someone you closely know or anything, but maybe I could talk to him? I can understand being alone and shit-oh sorry, I didn't mean to cuss."

"It's alright!" She laughs."I have a pretty foul mouth myself! I don't mind the language, as long as you don't talk back to little old me." She winks at me and walks back into the kitchen to clean some plates.

I stand up from the couch and shiver a bit from the wetness of my jeans. I take the baby blue blanket with me and go in the direction Jake was headed. I saw some stairs and my instincts told me to climb them, so I did.

I saw a door open to a room with sparkley furries and a nice shiny rifle by the foot of the bed._ Jade's room._ I felt a cold chill go up my spine as I noticed the amount of ammo near the door. No way I'm ever going into her the right of it I see a door slightly cracked open. There's a small faint sound of explosions and men yelling. Some sort of action movie was being played.

I head towards the room and opened it fully. I see the emerald eyes once again, but this time they were different. They look kind of scared- oh.

He's fucking_ changing._

Jake is frozen with shock and embarrassment. His entire face goes crimson, up to the tips of his ears. His overalls are gone and he wore red boxers. He holds the plaid shirt to his chest and he tries to say something, but no sound comes out, his mouth just hangs open. Just like my own.

_Dirk get the fuck out of there._

I abscond the fuck out of there shutting the door on my way out. That was fucking horrible. The guy probably is insecure about his body from not having too many friends. He probably thinks I'm some weird kid who just barges in on people changing. Jake's probably crying right now on his first intrusion of another guy he barely even knows.

All these thoughts are making my head dizzy and making my brain throb against my skull. I decide to go back downstairs and sit back on the couch. Jade looks over at me, concerned that things didn't go well. She shrugs it off though and continues dusting around the house. I curl myself into a blue ball of shame near the arm of the couch.

Day one at the Harley house and it's already going downhill. **_Fucking great._**


End file.
